20 May, 2010

We're importing a new rear rack. The Dajia Expedition Rack a sturdy stainless steel rack intended for loaded touring. It's not as nicely made as a VO rack, but both the quality and price are impressive.

It has a sandblasted gray finish and is perfectly sized for 700c wheels, but can be used on 26" and 650b frames as well. There a rear light mount with holes at the standard 50mm spacing. There are pump pegs spaced at 235mm. Maximum load is 25kg, or about 55lbs.

Note that this rack is intended for real touring frames, so if your frame has short chain stays and you have big feet, there might be heel clearance issues.

Matching front low-rider racks should arrive by late summer. Velo Orange front and rear camper racks are also in the works, but they will be considerably more expensive.

41 comments:

William, I don't know who first designed them, probably some old French builder, but racks like this are made by at least six companies. Some are steel and others are alloy, but this one is stainless and well priced which makes it very attractive.

I have one exactly like this, but aluminum, from Axiom. The way the rack designed is very sturdy. Eighty five bucks is much much more affordable than stainless steel Tubus. The clearance issue is the short chain stay will "bring" the panniers closer to your heels. This rack is for loaded touring. So you may need a touring frame with CS at least 44 cm.

We found this in DaJia's Taiwan catalogue. Like Chris said, there are probably 4-5 other manufactories in Taiwan producing something similar, and dog knows how many in China. I have visited the Dajia factory; it's clean, well organized, and efficient. There's a koi pond to the left of the entrance and rice patties nearby.

There is no development cost on our end. That's why its less expensive.

I take it the photo at the bottom of the page shows the new center pull and rack you mentioned in the Taiwan post. Do you have a better photo of the brake? Any info on it? Any info on the nice looking brown tire?

I, too, would like some more info on the ENE Ciclo tire. I'm afraid I may have to abandon my Jack Browns for a narrower tire once I install fenders. I would've chose the Ruffy Tuffy to replace the Jack Browns, but this new tire is really, really sharp looking. If it is nearly as flat resistant as the Jack Browns (and I assume the Ruffy Tuffys would be) I'd love to try them.

The weight would suggest they're pretty tough. Is there Kevlar in the belt?

Tom, somebody commented in the previous thread that the height of the light mount could be an issue with this rack. Do you know if the mount (with light attached) is high enough to allow for fat 700c touring tires (say, 700x45ish) with fenders?

It really does look just like a Cargo, but for whatever reason, Tubus doesn't make the Cargo in stainless steel. I think I would buy this rack if I were confident that it would work for me.

I just mounted the Dajia rear on a VO Mixte frame with 35mm tires and 47mm fenders and there was still about 17mm of clearance from the bottom of the light mount plate to the fender. I would imagine the fit would be great any bike with chainstays at least 43cms.

Have you guys sold any fenders to a TV production company in Vancouver? Perhaps my obsession with fenders has lead me to see fenders where there are none, but in the last episode of Fringe, there was an inter-dimensional transportation device of some sort appeared to have been ringed with VO fluted fenders.

Looks like loaded touring is making a comeback of sorts. I'm feeling it personally. I think a lot of people with bikes are moving beyond fitness and transportation to see how else they might complement our lives. It might not be the 70s again, but it's a nice thought. I wonder, whatever made touring fall out of fashion in the first place? I remember when all the local shops had nice Miyatas or Bridgestone t700 and Specialized Sequoia touring bikes in the mid 80s, and those then-uncool models took many years to sell out. No one was interested. We were all into performance. Seems a little sad now, since those bikes were so great, much better than production bikes have been since. You can go on club rides on a touring bike; you can't tour on a race bike.

Well, I did an overnighter last week to a local state park, for the first time in a couple of years. I am a very devoted cyclist, and ride all the time in lycra or not, but there was something about the bike-camping thing that just felt great. I used to do it all the time, before I became too busy and middle-aged. I think touring might be the fountain of youth for some of us, in a small but real way.

Looks like these might be a nice low cost alternative to the Tubus stainless steel racks. I will be watching for the matching low rider later this summer, been planning to buy a Nova to go with my Cosmo and I wouldn't mind saving a hundred bucks or so.

This is very similar, if not identical, to the Axiom Streamliner Disc XLS (http://www.axiomgear.com/products/gear/racks/rear-racks/streamliner-disc-dlx/). I have the Axiom Streamliner, a similar rack fitted up as a Tubus Fly knockoff. It's not a very good rack. The tubing is fine, but the attachment points are poorly engineered. The lower mounting tabs settle fore or aft on their bolts with any significant load. The upper stays on this one, being tubular, appear better than the flat one on mine, which flexes badly. The pump pegs are useless for a frame pump, and can interfere with the forward clamp of a left-side pannier.

The finish on the Axiom wears off with use far more quickly than on my Tubus Cargo. The bungee cord loops in the lower mounting tabs appear usable at first, but are too narrow for hooks that still have their rubber tips. The light bracket, at least, is useful, and fits a German-mount tail-light, such as a Toplight.

It's not that my Axiom Streamliner wasn't worth the $40 I paid for it; it's that I'll end up shelling out for the Tubus anyway, because I want a rack that works right. I don't think I'd go for another Axiom at twice the price.

This looks like it is made in the same factory as the Axiom version, down to the pump pegs. I have an Axiom, which (in contrast to another poster) I think is excellent and worth many times the $25 I paid. The main thing is to tighten well the bolts at the bottom. Because my bike lacks seatstay braze-ons, I made a steel strap to attach at the rear brake bolt, and it's worked well on my Kogswell.

FWIW, I also have the "racer" version of the Axiom rack, which includes extender plates to move the rack back about 50cm (and which mounts to the rear skewer), and have been able to haul loads consisting of lots of law books without any trouble.

In stainless, even nicer. But there's nothing wrong with the basic design.

@Anonymous 5/25/10 8:57 AM:The Axiom rack I have is steel, not aluminum. Nothing wrong with its welds: they're chunky, but strong. Again, I can't fault the materials or the construction.

@Andy M-S:I put the "racer" version on my Salmon fixed-gear commuter. I find the extra welcome for extra heel clearance. (I always get the extended rack when I can, because I run long cranks, and have big feet.) But those setbacks are long levers, which allow the weight of the rack to turn the lever around the single Allen bolt that attaches to the dropout.

I'd like to see how you fabricated your top attachment. The stock one leaves a lot to be desired. Lay a thin bar flat and push on it, it'll bend. The stock one is a thin bar layed flat.

I bought my Axiom on first sight. It looked like a budget Tubus. I love Tubus' stuff, but I'm cheap. I found that I got what I paid for. Where I can load the Tubus Cargo on my Trek 620 down with 25 lbs of laptop, tools, wine, and groceries without it budging, I can't do the same on the Axiom without the rack moving, no matter how hard I torque down the bolts. The tubing and construction are fine, but the mounts are a bit of a fail.

According to Axiom's site, the Streamliner Disc DLX rack is made from "10.2mm tubular 6061 T6 alloy construction". That is a type of aluminum, not stainless steel like the Dajia or the VO racks. The more expensive Tubus racks are also stainless steel and the cheaper ones are chrome-molly steel. Aluminum racks are not reliable for for heavy loads because they can fatigue and crack, judging by the number of broken ones I've seen.

On my bike with the Racer version (an '85 Trek 560) I have no attachment points on the dropouts. Consequently, I mounted the rack by passing my rear skewer through the holes in the foot extensions (I also like the clearance--size 13 feet and 175mm cranks). The skewer clamps the feet to the dropouts, and actually helps hold the wheel straight. So far, with relatively hefty loads--30# or so, about as hefty as I'm going to put on this bike--no problem at all. And because there's no real chance of rotation at the rear with the skewer clamped properly, the flat forward brace doesn't carry any weight, so it's sufficiently strong.